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Town of Tamina, Montgomery County Texas

TAMINA, TEXAS. Tamina is on the Missouri Pacific line a mile east of Interstate Highway 45 and 8½ miles south of Conroe in southern Montgomery County. In 1871 the Houston and Great Northern Railroad built through the area. A post office opened at the community in 1897, closed in 1905, and reopened that same year, only to close again sometime after 1935. James H. Berry, who promoted the town, named it after Tammany Hall, New York. Apparently, the letter writer submitting the name to the postal department had his own ideas about the spelling. Even today, the name is still pronounced "Tammany." By 1904 Tamina had a population of 128, which declined to 100 by 1915, when the town had a telephone connection, two general stores, and a grocery. By 1925 the population had declined again, to fifty. In 1948 Tamina had a station on the International and Great Northern, a church, two schools, two businesses, and some twelve scattered dwellings. Also in the 1940s, Tamina had a black school with one teacher for grades one through seven. In 1949 the school was dissolved, and the students were transferred to the Booker T. Washington school in Conroe. In the early 1980s Tamina consisted of numerous scattered dwellings, several businesses, the Tamina cemetery and Falvey Memorial Church (located a quarter mile east of town), and two other churches. Several other small towns and the subdivision of Shady Meadow were nearby.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Montgomery County Genealogical Society, Montgomery County History (Winston-Salem, North Carolina: Hunter, 1981). Fred Tarpley, 1001 Texas Place Names (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980).

Will Branch

Tamina Remembers Origins In Juneteenth Celebration

By Erika E. Durham, Courier staff
06/19/2002
 
Slaves were still toiling in Texas fields on June 19, 1865 when they finally learned they were free – nearly two-and-a-half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was passed.
 
The news set them to celebrating and eventually settling their own communities, including one in south Montgomery County known as Tamina.

Six years after that historic day when General Gordon Granger landed on Galveston Island to read the Emancipation Proclamation, a particular group of new freedmen chose to move north and make Montgomery County their home.

They named their newfound land Tamina after Tammany Hall in New York. Tamina is a small community in southern Montgomery County, neighbor to the affluent communities of Shenandoah, Oak Ridge North and The Woodlands. Its founders originally wished to name the town Little Egypt, until they were told that an Egypt Texas, not too far away, already existed.

Pioneer John Elmore decided on Tammany; but somewhere in the naming process, the spelling of the town's name was changed – and hence, Tamina, Texas, was born.

These citizens wasted no time naming their town, building homes and establishing a full-scale post office.

Later, restaurants, schools and a community park would also be established.

Today, descendants of the people who chose the wooded area still reside in Tamina and hold on to pride of the past, progress and potential for their community.

"Our history is very important to us – we are reminded of it every day and never want to forget where we have come from and still how far we have to go," said Rita Yates-Wiltz, Tamina community activist, native and descendant of some of the original settlers.

Yates-Wiltz is the great-great-granddaughter of Louise Williams, who was a midwife for Tamina and surrounding communities in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

"She even delivered some of (General) Sam Houston's children," she said.

Willie Pierson and Alma Jones are two residents of Tamina who are in their 90s and remember Tamina before the roads had names and the only water available came from wells.

Pierson and his wife operated Pierson's grocery, a small, frame building that still stands, but shows no trace of its purpose.

Still, Pierson looks fondly on the store's memories.

"My wife was really the one who ran it, and I would supervise," he laughed.

Jones, who is the widow of the Rev. Will Jones, the late pastor of Lone Star Baptist Church, Tamina's second established church, said she believes slaves chose this area because of its peaceful surroundings and prospect for growth.

"We moved to Tamina after Dr. (Herbert) Hayes offered me and my husband $25 a month to work here," she said. "Now you know times were hard if that kind of money would make us move," she said.

But Jones said she never regretted the move and has enjoyed living in Tamina ever since.

Jones, first lady to the second church, also remembers the founding of the first church in Tamina, Falvey Memorial Baptist Church.

Doctor Thomas Falvey built the church after Louise Williams, his midwife, explained her need to have at least one day off during the week – Sunday – and her enjoyment for going to church, Yates-Wiltz said.

Yates-Wiltz said Falvey built the church for Williams and other residents to attend. In appreciation, they named the church after him.

With all the history and steps that have been made in the community, Tamina residents believe there is still a long way to go.

The Montgomery County Genealogical Society and The Friends of Tamina are organizations are working to record history and restore the Sweetrest Cemetery in Tamina.

And Matt Lloyd, press secretary for U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, said during the last congressional session, $250,000 was approved for running water to be installed in certain places in Tamina.

"The funds which are offered through the community block grant have not been distributed yet," Lloyd said.

This grant has been awarded after three years of efforts by civic organizations and community leaders, and residents are pushing for more.

Pierson, who said he has seen several areas of change in the community, looks forward to Juneteenth.

This year, like every year, the Juneteenth celebration will bring family celebrations, reunions and barbecues with Taminians celebrating as much as they always have.

 
©Houston Community Newspapers Online 2008
 

 

 

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